[Frank_Further]

What’s your canine’s quirk?
Does Prince drink out of the toilet? That’s not a quirk. That’s a well-considered choice.
Does he drink out of the toilet when you’re……...? --------That’s a quirk.

Does your Fido eat steamed broccoli, but never raw, only the stalks, and never the flowery head which happens to be called the curd?
Maybe your Cur-dawg talks in her sleep, sleeps with a horse, has butt dialed your mother,
puts her toys away without being asked except for Mr. Squeaky who is quite special and
has a special place that’s not in the toy bucket. Does Luna get a little ticked during the full moon and
bury his bones in the bottom of the laundry basket?

Maybe little Fluff Puff will ride in the back seat with your son on the way to soccer practice, but no way, no how,
will Fluff ride in back on the way home. It’s front seat- “Shotgun!” or Master Puff ain’t getting in?
Has your pooch made an extra special friend that doesn’t live in your home and isn’t canus lupus familiaris?
Does your buddy, Buddy, buddy with a bunny, hang out with the chipmunk on the stump, greet the doe at the salt block,
or investigate the hedgerow with a skunk and not need a V8 shampoo?

You all got the idea? Okay, Good boy. Good girl. I’ve thrown you a bone and please don’t make me go first. I won't cuz I've got quirks too.

Let’s hear ’em. Bonus internet points for pictures.

 

[Littlefox]

Well, it may not be so much a quirk but a little routine our Dachshund puppy Toby has developed with my husband:
At mealtime Toby wants to keep us company of course so to keep him comfy and off the cold floor, using his foot, my husband moved Toby's soft bed from the living room to the dining room. Toby decided to sit in his bed while it was being moved and my husband started singing "All aboard the Toby traaaaiiiiiiiiin". Since then my husband just has to start singing this little phrase and Toby comes running from anywhere to sit in his bed for a little choo-choo ride

 

[laurelsmom]

Laurel has her songs too. I was surprised how long she remembered this one:

https://invidio.us/watch?v=jZf5QMIBqDE

which I used to sing to her when she was a baby to encourage her to walk on leash. She also responds to this:

https://invidio.us/watch?v=uWT2qHVftGk

which is the theme song of a local radio program. I was really surprised at how long she remembered my dog songs and how she immediately knew they were about and for her when I sang for her the other day.

I talk to my dog way too much and she rats me out! Laurel is a dog, of course, but she has completely captured the rhythms and melodies of the English language and I want to die of embarassment half the time I'm out in public when this little six pound "fur baby" is obviously (to me) repeating such idiotic phrases as "I love you too!".

Fortunately, once you take what a dog can understand and reproduce of human speech and plug it into a human who can't stand "yappy little dogs" and is annoyed with the old lady carrying one, all you really get is:

YAPYAPAYAPYAPAYAPAYAPYAPYAPAYAP!!!!!!!!

anyway.

That'll do. My dog is yappy.

 

[Frank_Further]

I sing U2's, "Streets Have No Name' while we're out and I'm trying to disguise my anxiety as we travel
past sketchy stretches of apartment buildings. I don't sing well, so I mostly try and stay off those blocks.

 

[Littlefox]

Our senior dog gets all mellow and blinky eyes, when I sing children's songs to her, like "You are my sunshine" or "Itsy bitsy spider".

 

[allornothing]

Our new pup has terrible manners since he is new and doesn't know the rules. He is really good at opening doors if you don't latch them all the way. He likes to come into the bathroom, put his head in the shower and lick you while you shower. This happened to me for the first time yesterday and apparently it's happened to all my family members.



He is not very food motivated, so that's interesting. I've never had a dog that wasn't.



If you don't give him attention, he will push his way between your legs and then just stand there.

 

[laurelsmom]

Laurel isn't overly food motivated either. I'm only sort of trying to be funny when I say that I wish I could use positive based training techniques to train her to finish her supper.

It sounds like your new pup is an attention hound. I'd never had a companion breed before or a terrier before, but I did know enough about "newfangled" training techniques to give dog ownership another try under completely different circumstances. I knew about using treats to extinguish negative behaviours such as barking at joggers.

The joggers didn't think Laurel was cute any more but the training treats were all the way back at the parking lot. I don't like Western Civilization so I tried attention instead: "Good doggie good doggie good doggie!!" and petting her as the jogger approached and then a belly raspberry when she had accomplished the difficult task of "Not scaring our friends so they can take good care of their bodies."

By the end of the day, she was reliably not barking at joggers. I'm still struggling with "sit", "stay", "down", "come", and nowhere near ready for "heel", but if she forgets and barks at joggers/horseback riders/bicyclists etc. that much is an easy fix anyway.

The cruelest thing I can imagine doing to Laurel is ignoring her. It's a whole level of responsibility deeper than when I was responsible for dogs who were not bred to be companions. Rehoming them was always an option, an "easy fix", or a "get out of Jail free" card if I was ever seriously in a position where I couldn't afford dog food and minimal veterinary care.

The rewards are every bit as exponential. I love my dog and my dog loves me.

 

[Frank_Further]

Hey, LM...
I read on the internets that there is a Bob Dylan and the Band version of "Gotta Stop Kickin My Dog Around" on one of the bootleg versions of The Basement Tapes. That'd be interestin' to hear.
I enjoyed the old timey feel of the version you put up, but I couldn't quite catch the lyrics. Here's a version that puts the vocals more up front.

I gotta learn these words.

The Cat Stevens song, I Love My Dog is beautiful. I forgot how unique Cat's voice was. Nice links, kiddo.

I'm more of a blues guy, so here's John Lee Hooker having troubles with a woman and needs to find her and she's hard to find so he recruits "6 Little Puppies & 12 Old Shaggy Hounds." I love the train reference in this song and how the tempo picks up steadily like a train gaining steam.

 

[Frank_Further]

Frank the Dog has a quirk or two.
He will stop stock still and focus his look into all open garages.
He can and will stand for 2-3-4 minutes without moving his feet.

If I don't disturb him, he will stand there until the door goes down.
He will watch and wait for the door go down, apparently listen to the door closer mechanism that signals the end of the close cycle, stare at the door for a few moments more and then and only then will he turn his head and look at me. Then he will glance back at the closed garage door one more time and shift his weight and start to move off with me.

On weekends when more people are home during the day and more garages are open it feels like going to the theatre where every open garage is an Act from a play. It's a little different in human theatre where the stage is lit and the house is dark, while in our Dog Walk Theatre the garage is dark inside and the world outside is lit.

It's fascinating to watch him watch. Be a part of it. If there's a person in the garage, his behavior is the same. He does not move his feet. People often fail to notice us out on the sidewalk. We're like a pair of deer in the woods watching you pass by on a path... 25 feet away and you don't see us.

People react differently if they do perceive us, although the initial reaction is always the same. It's like we did a magic trick and appeared out of no where. Presto!
I think it creeps some folks out.

Weekends are awesome. We can take in a dozen performances in a couple hours.

 

[kakite]

Not a quirk probably, but according to my husband, Nova starts sitting at the window and waiting for me about half an hour before I usually come home from work.

 

[kakite]

Picture proof

 

[Frank_Further]

Frank abandoned his stare into every garage quirk over the weekend... maybe it's the weather being swell and too many open garages for him to bother about?

A couple other quirky weather (?) related changes surfaced over the weekend and this morning.
He started wagging his tail at me when I come in from being out, and.... What the heck? He got up & gave the missus' a nose touch/tail wag when she said goodbye to him this morning.onder: